Purple Glove
by JumpUpAndDown
Summary: When you're five years old, Christmas is the best time of the year. You make memories that you would never forget. And for the lucky ones, when you grow older, it still is the best time of the year. Just like it was for May and Drew.


**Okay, I know I should be updating It Takes Two, but I'm having a writer's block. And this little inspiration popped into my head this evening. I just hope I make it in time for Christmas! :D Enjoy!**

**Oh, and I don't own Pokemon,**

-3-

May Maple was ecstatic. Today was Christmas, and in the heart of a five year old, it was one of the most precious and magical nights ever. This year she was at the City Centre of Larousse City, seeing as how the gym leaders were holding a party there. Since her father was a gym leader, his whole family was expected to be there.

Unfortunately for her, despite the fact the place was bursting with people, she felt lonely. There was no one her age around. She couldn't go to her father for company, since he was with his group of friends, the male gym leaders. Her mother was surrounded by all the females present, since they were all curious to look at May's little brother, Max, who was barely a year old.

The other kids were all at least ten, and none of them wanted to play with her. There was a girl, with red hair, who May remembers as Misty, who had wanted to be her friend, but before May could take her up on her offer, Misty's three sisters had whisked her away to talk to other girls their age.

May sighed as she walked moodily around the place, unsure of her destination. Suddenly it hit her. She could venture out of the Centre. Surely there had to be some kid there who would be willing to play with her.

With a rejuvenated sense of excited, May sprinted through the open doors. After skipping a few steps, she realized she wasn't wearing her gloves. After a moment of indecision, she just ran forward, deciding that a moment in the snow without gloves on wouldn't cause much harm. At the very least, she had her scarf around her neck, red, just like the rest of her outfit.

May squealed as she saw an open field, entirely covered with snow. She ran and jumped into it, lying on her back and laughing as she began to wave her arms and legs, forming a snow angel.

"You know, my mummy says you'll get sick if you don't wear your gloves in the snow."

May sat up, looking around to see who had said that. Then she spotted a figure, leaning against a tree. She stood up and walked cautiously towards it. The figure stepped out of the shadows, and May saw a little boy, around her age, looking at her curiously. His fringe of green hair could be seen under his beanie, eyes the same colour.

"Hi, I'm Drew." He introduced, holding out a gloved hand for her to shake.

May took a step back, shaking her head. There were two reasons why she wouldn't shake his hand. But the far more important reason was because she didn't want to take her hand out of her pocket, since it was freezing after her snow-angel act.

"What's wrong?" Drew asked dejectedly, stuffing the hand she had held out into his pocket.

"My mummy thaid to never talk to thrangers." May explained hurriedly, afraid of hurting the boy's feelings.

Drew felt a corner of her mouth tug upwards at the childish lisp the girl, with the brown hair and the blue eyes, had, but didn't allow himself to smile. It was against his self-imposed rules to smile on Christmas, since that was the day his daddy had left him and his mummy three years ago.

"You just talked to me." He said, and smirked as May's eyes widened and she clamped both her hands over her mouth. Then she shivered, and jammed them resolutely back into her pockets.

"Well, I know you're name ith Drew, tho you aren't a thranger." May mumbled, more to reassure herself than anything else.

"I guess so." Drew agreed. He didn't want to argue with her, although he was curious as to how she would look with her face scrunched up. He guessed she would look very cute. "You know my name. What's yours?"

"May Maple." She grinned. Then shivered again.

Drew took a few steps back and sat down on the ground, where he was blanketed by the shadows the tree formed. He patted the spot next to him, and when he saw May look at it with a worried expression on her face, he attempted to wipe away the snow. His handiwork wasn't that effective, but May was touched enough to sit there anyway.

"Tho, why aren't you inthide?" May asked, and Drew had to resist the irresistible urge to smile again at her lisp, which he liked very much. And he didn't like a lot of things.

"Cause I'm outside." He replied, smirking as her brain processed the information and her face scrunched up, showing she wasn't pleased with his smarty-pants answer.

"I know that, thmarty-pants." She told him indignantly.

Drew sighed, leaning against the tree. May cuddled next to him and looked up at him imploringly. Drew took one look at the big blue eyes and knew he was a goner.

"Okay, I'll tell you. Cause my mummy ain't a gym leader. She's the cook. The best in the entire world!" He confessed.

"You're mummy wath the one who cooked the food? It wath tho yummy!" May complimented, rubbing her stomach and licking her lips. Then she shivered, glared at her hand as though relying on eye power to materialize a glove on it, and then just stuffed it back into her pocket when it didn't happen.

"My daddy and all the other gym leaderth love your mummy'th food." May told him, and Drew swelled with pride.

"I'll tell her that. She loves it when people compeement her food." Drew said, and May looked at him in puzzlement.

"What'th compeement?" She inquired.

"Compeement is when people say something good about you." When May continued to look puzzled, he flicked his hair. "Like, when I say, 'You have real pretty eyes.' That's a compeement."

May blushed, "You think I have real pretty eyeth?"

"It was only an example!" Drew exclaimed, but when her shoulders drooped, he sighed and placed one hand on her feet.

"But I do think so. They're real pretty. Like the sky." He told her, and May giggled.

"I think you have real pretty eyeth too. Like the grath." She smiled, and Drew began to smile, but quickly controlled himself.

"Why do you alwayth do that?" May asked.

"Do what?"

"Not thmile. When you look like you want to thmile, you never do." She told him.

Drew's guard snapped up. "It's none of your business!" He snapped at her, and turned his back against her, folding his arms resolutely and staring up at the sky. How dare she ask why he didn't want to smile, it was his mouth. She had no business in asking.

A small sob caused him to look over his shoulder, and his heart dropped when he saw May sniveling, wiping her eyes with her bare hands. She had scooted away from him and she refused to look in his direction.

Drew crawled over to her, "May… I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you." He settled next to her.

May was easily consoled, and as she cuddled next to him for warmth once again, she whispered, "I'm thorry too. I thouldn't have athked."

Drew breathed out. Somehow, this little girl made him want to talk about his daddy. Unable to hold it in, he blurted, "I don't smile on Christmasses, because that was when my daddy left me and my mummy."

He heard May's sharp intake of breath, and shuddered, as the memories invaded his mind. "It was dinner time, but daddy didn't want to eat. He had a bag and then he said he couldn't take it anymore and then he left. My mummy cried and asked him to come back, but he didn't. I was three, I couldn't do anything. I'd never seen mummy cry before. Then I was so angry at daddy for making her cry. I ran out the house, I ran after him. I saw him get into our car, and I shouted 'Daddy, daddy!' but he didn't turn. He didn't look at me. Not once."

Drew's voice had shrinked into a mere whisper, as his eyes swarmed with tears. He felt a pair of arms close around him, and he shivered. May hugged him tightly. She felt so bad for him. She couldn't imagine her short life without her daddy with her every step of the way. Poor Drew.

"I'm thorry Drew." She cried, as tears fell from her eyes and onto Drew's coat. Drew patted her bare head awkwardly, and told her not to cry. Ever since his mummy, he hadn't been able to see girls cry. He had also promised he would never ever cry, but right now, he was doing just that.

"Hey, it'th okay." May whispered, as Drew clung onto her petite frame and drowned in his sorrows. The tables had been turned, it was her turn to console him now.

"I'm here now Drew. And I promith one day we'll meet each other again and then we'll live happily ever after." She said soothingly. She held his shoulders, ignoring the iciness of his coat and the chill it sent down her spine.

"My mummy thayth that people who are in love will live happily ever after. And I love you Drew."

Drew eyed her wearily. "My mummy always says kids don't know what love is."

May shook her head, "Oh no Drew. My mummy told me that love ith when you want to be with the perthon for the reth of your life, and I want to stay with you Drew. Tho I can thow you that I won't ever leave you."

Drew's eyes flooded with a round of fresh tears. "You'll never leave me?"

May nodded, and smiled. "The next time we meet, you'll know you'll be thuck with me forever."

Drew finally allowed himself to smile. It was shy and hesitant, but May's heart soared when she saw it.

Drew leaned over and placed his lips on May's. When he broke them apart, May stared at him, the puzzled expression back on her face.

"I saw on this boy do that to the girl when she told him she loved him."

"Oh, okay then." May smiled, and shivered. Drew stared at her bare hands, and an idea formed in his head. Quickly, he stripped his left hand of a glove and passed it to May, stuffing the hand into his pocket.

"Wear it, and then hold my hand." He ordered and May complied, stuffing her right hand into her coat, gripping Drew's glove-cladded with hers. They smiled at each other before May broke into a yawn.

"I'm thleepy." She mumbled, eyes already partially closed as she placed her head on Drew's shoulder, smiling contently at the warmth. Drew smiled, placing his head on hers, before drifting off to Dreamland himself. Into a world in the future where they met and they lived their happily ever after.

May woke up the next day in her own bed, and sat up. She stretched and smiled at the day ahead of her. And then she saw the purple glove on her desk, and started crying.

Every year on Christmas, May would hang just one ornament on the tree. The purple glove. It signified what Christmas meant to her. A day full of wonderful surprises, precious moments and unforgettable confessions.

As time went by, May soon forgot about Drew. His name, his face. But she never forgot how she was the reason the little boy had smiled on Christmas for the first time in ages.

The same happened to Drew. He could not recall any details about her, except for the fact she had an adorable lisp. Alas, May had grown out of it.

That's why both of them didn't recognize each other when they met, as Coordinators. In fact, the night they met, five years later, May complained to her travelling buddies, Ash, Brock and Max, that she hated the arrogant egoistic jerk with her whole heart.

When Christmas came and she placed her ornament on the Pokemon Centre's Christmas tree, she couldn't explain why his face flashed in her mind. Drew. She was so angry she nearly ripped the glove off the tree and threw it into the fire.

Nearly.

But as time went by, and May got to know Drew more, the hate dissipated and love began to take its place. The second Christmas, when his face flashed in her mind as she hung her ornament, she just smiled resignedly. Maybe it was time to move on.

The third Christmas she spent in Johto, just her and her Pokemon, since she had decided to travel herself. As she hung the glove on the tree, she reminisced on that one meeting with her Pokemon. She told them everything she could remember, but there wasn't much. Soon, the conversation steered away from her mysterious first love to Drew.

And only when she realized she had talked about Drew for a whole hour straight, did she decide it was time to put the glove away.

And it stayed hidden, but never forgotten. It had somehow evolved from a mere Christmas ornament to her lucky charm. But she never took it out. Never showed it to anyone.

Until one Christmas.

May was the happiest girl on Earth. Drew had confessed his feelings for her a few months prior, and they had decided they would spend the Christmas together, their first one together as an official couple. She didn't understand why, but when Drew placed the star on the top of the tree, she felt as though the tree still wasn't complete.

"Ain't it beautiful?" He asked her. May nodded absently, still raking her brain as to what was missing.

"Not as beautiful as you though." Drew murmured, and he leaned in for a kiss. Just as their lips were about to meet, May snapped her fingers. "I know!" She cried, and raced up the stairs to the room they shared.

Drew sighed, as he collapsed on the couch. His girlfriend was crazy. And that's one of the many reasons why he loved her.

"This!" May screamed, as she ran past Drew to the tree and hung what she had been searching for on the tree. "There, now it's complete." She announced, standing back, hands on her waist, to admire her added touch.

Drew smirked as he got off the couch and sauntered over to the tree. He scanned it for an out of place ornament, and when he spotted it, his heart stopped.

A purple kid glove.

"Umm, I'll be right back." And ran as fast as he could the way May had just used. When he returned, with something in his arm, May gave him a puzzled look, and Drew nearly lost it. Today it all seemed to clear.

He unraveled his hand to show a purple kid glove.

May's gasp was the only sound in the silent room. They stared at each other, and then at the glove hanging on the tree and then the one in his hand. The room was still, the atmosphere so tense you could run a blade through it.

May reacted first. She screamed and launched herself at Drew.

"Oh my God, oh my God!" She screamed as she threw her arms around his neck. "It was you, Drew! It was you all along! It was always you!"

Drew replied by hugging her waist and lifting her off the ground. "I don't believe this!" He shouted as he swung her around. "Oh May, oh my May." He whispered. Tears formed in her eyes as he stopped swinging her.

"I told you, didn't I? That one day we'll live our happily ever after? We're going to do that. I love you so much." She said, her smile brighter than the star shining on their Christmas tree.

Drew shook his head as he planted a deep and long kiss on May's lips that left her head spinning.

"No my May. We already are living our happily ever after. I love you. Merry Christmas."

-3-

**There you go. My first ever holiday one-shot. Please tell me what you think of it! And have a VERY MEERY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D**


End file.
